«There are no economic grounds for filing a claim to World Trade Organization against Kyrgyzstan by Ukraine,» said the Economy Minister of Kyrgyzstan Oleg Pankratov to 24.kg news agency.

According to him, introduction of anti-dumping duties on steel pipes from Ukraine was adopted not by individual countries, but by the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC). That is the claim of Ukraine should be considered there. In addition, the Minister of Economy is convinced that Ukraine uses the mechanism of filing a lawsuit in court of the World Trade Organization as a way of putting pressure on Russia. By filing claims against Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Kazakhstan, it hopes that countries will have some impact on Russia. At the same time, the official claims that Kyrgyzstan should not be afraid of the claim.

«There is a de jure antidumping duty, but there is no de facto economic base for its calculation. Before the introduction of duties, products from Ukraine were not delivered to Kyrgyzstan. There was no steel pipe trade between us. In order to talk about damage, it is necessary to have an acting scheme: there was a trade before, then they introduced duties, and the country lost a certain amount. But since we did not trade in pipes before, there is no economic basis for calculating the damage. There are no risks for Kyrgyzstan,» said Oleg Pankratov.

Ukraine initiated litigations against Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on duties on steel pipes. Anti-dumping duties were extended in June 2016 by a decision of the Eurasian Economic Commission for another five years. Then it was reported that the decision was made following a re-anti-dumping investigation. The duties apply to casing, tubing, oil and gas pipes and general purpose pipes from Ukraine.

In the lawsuit, Ukraine notes that such measures are incompatible with the various provisions of the WTO anti-dumping agreement and article 6 of the general agreement on tariffs and trade.